Tech Companies in Complete Agreement on Need for Tough Net Neutrality Rules, Mozilla Official Says
LAS VEGAS -- Tech companies -- from Facebook to Mozilla and Google to Microsoft -- universally support strong net neutrality rules, including reclassifying broadband as a Title II Communications Act service, said Chris Riley, Mozilla senior policy engineer. The company made a hybrid net neutrality proposal last year but later supported reclassification (see 1411050042). “A lot of big companies” agree “half measures” under Title I and “soft rules” wouldn't adequately protect the Internet, Riley said Monday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The net neutrality debate kicked off at CES with Riley lined up against AT&T Vice President Hank Hultquist and lawyer Barbara Esbin of Cinnamon Mueller, representing the American Cable Association. With attendance carrying a hefty add-on charge, the broadband conference, held the day before CES formally opens, was lightly attended, as it is most years. The debate may pick up Wednesday with Chairman Tom Wheeler to speak and broadband reclassification expected to headline the FCC Feb. 26 open meeting (see 1412310041).
Net neutrality is about no blocking and no discrimination, while allowing reasonable network management, Riley said. There’s “generally a consensus” in favor of those principles and net neutrality is not as controversial as it may seem, Riley said. “I think this same, general, shared, normative goal, is what all of the past three successive FCC chairmen have tried to advance." The fight has been “messy,” but “from Mozilla’s point of view, my point of view, we’re headed in the right direction, finally,” he said.
Riley conceded reclassification would carry with it “fear, uncertainty and doubt.” ISPs argue that excessive regulation will suppress investment in networks, he said. “It’s a very abstract statement.”
The net neutrality debate tends to take on a “theological” quality, Hultquist said. A big part of the debate has been about paid peering, but Netflix is the only company that has raised questions, Hultquist said. “There doesn’t seem to be any other company or participant who perceives there to be a problem in the ecosystem.” The FCC shouldn't “regulate to solve a one-company issue,” he said.
The commission appears headed toward court once again if it moves forward as expected at its February meeting, Hultquist said. The appeal is likely to be a “déjà vu revisitation” of issues raised in the Brand X decision, a cable case decided by the Supreme Court in 2005, he said. “There’s a wireless angle in here and the reclassification of wireless services raises additional issues that were not part of the Brand X appeal.” The debate isn't likely to end soon, he said.
“A lot of the net neutrality debate is about fear,” but fear of the big telcos and big cable companies, Esbin said. Cable providers never were classified under Title II in their provision of Internet service, she said. Esbin issued a warning. “Changing the regulatory status of service is a huge, monumental deal,” she said. “It is not trivial. Unintended consequences get triggered.”
Paul Feldman, a Fletcher Heald communications lawyer, traced the history of net neutrality, saying at its root it is “a vague cover term.” The FCC’s Comcast/BitTorrent decision required ISPs to engage in reasonable network management, he noted: “The question of what is reasonable continues to come up.” The FCC 2010 net neutrality order, overturned in court a year ago, was based on the agency’s Section 706 authority and its theory of the “virtuous cycle,” Feldman said. In the wake of last year’s court ruling, there are no net neutrality rules other than transparency, he said. The debate has put Wheeler in a “difficult position,” he said.